For those of you about to heavy metal rock with Iron Maiden, we salute you.

The band kicks off its Book Of Souls World tour in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Feb. 24. The band’s previous tour traveled in a 757. This tour will fly in a tricked-out 747 dubbed as Ed Force One, which is how the band has tagged its planes since its first big tour in 2008. The schedule for the tour, which ends in August, is printed below the cockpit.

Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson and will be in the cockpit on many of the flights. In keeping with its “dark” themes, the 747’s flight numbers will be “666.”

The 747 will haul over 12 tons of equipment and travel more than 55,000 miles as the tour visits 35 countries and six continents.

Cheap Fares Have Far-Reaching Effects

There’s probably nothing more democratic and diverse than a packed commercial flight. In particular, there is a wide variety of fares paid by the passengers.

Take a row in a 737. Six passengers, probably six different fares. A business traveler booking at the last minute might have paid full fare while a vacation traveler might have scored the cheapest ticket available because it was booked six months in advance.

The airlines’ ticket pricing and policies have been galling and confusing since the industry was deregulated. The only thing that keeps fares reasonably reasonable is competition. A successful low-fare airline like Spirit has lived up to its “Bare Fare” motto.

Of course, some would say the no frills carriers are just a step above packing yourself in a box with an oxygen tank and a bottle of water and shipping yourself FedEx.

This New York Times article looks into how the low-fare carriers and the trend of no-frills ticketing is impacting the cost of air travel and how the legacy carriers are trying to compete without angering their elite frequent fliers.

New Agreement Adds Flights To Tokyo’s Haneda Airport

Thanks to an agreement reached Thursday between the United States and Japan, travelers facing nonstop flights from the West Coast to Tokyo will arrive with time to do business.

The deal with Tokyo’s Haneda Airport adds five departures and five arrivals between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. plus also adds one overnight departure and arrival. Previously there had been no daytime arrivals for flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo.

Haneda Airport is located closer to Tokyo’s downtown and the additional flight times will mean more convenience in terms of business meetings. Narita International Airport is Tokyo’s hub for international flights but is located on the edge of the city.

The Case Of The Serial Stowaway

This story is equal parts fascinating and sad.

Marilyn Hartman, aka The Serial Stowaway, was arrested Wednesday at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. She’s facing charges of felony probation violation and misdemeanor criminal trespass. Since April of 2015, she’s been arrested seven times at O’Hare and Chicago’s Midway Airport for trying to board flights without a boarding pass.

Hartman, 64, is known to have made 13 failed attempts to board flights without a ticket. What’s amazing is that at least three other times she has successfully traveled by air without a ticket.

Wendell Barnhouse is a veteran journalist with over 40 years of experience as a writer and an editor. For the last 30 years, he wrote about college sports but he has had an interest and curiosity about aviation since he was in grade school.